Off Key

William James thought that, in the last analysis, the religious experience consisted of an uneasiness and its solution, and that religion, as the term is ordinarily used, could be described as a faith state hung upon a metaphysical skeleton, the last presumably to facilitate argument, whether with oneself or with others.

Children's Crusade. 1.

Judged by these criteria, the Buchmanite experience is a real religious one, and the Buchmanite movement qualifies as a religion, certainly, too, they have, in many cases, received a faith. The existence of the intellectual framework is not so obvious--few of the devotees could state it succintly, but a diligent perusal of their publications, and of the words of Dr. Buchman will show a certain set of purposes which are fairly consistently followed.

Dr. Buchman, who in his more infested moments, has asked for "a supernatural network over five wires," and for "a spiritual radiophone in every home," puts forward as the central object of the movement God-control of every person's every act. God-control is acquired by the faithful as a result of frequent "quiet times" when uninterrupted meditation produces God's answer to any troublesome problem. To a certain extent this seems to be the old faith in the natural man, a reliance on the efficacy of the still, small voice of conscience.

Aside from the quiet time, the distinguishing characteristics of the Buchmanite movement consist of a use of confession, psychologically a perfectly satisfactory method of relieving the mind (and one that the Catholic Church has been availing itself of for some time), their admitted social discrimination, and an insistence on the fulfillment of the four key words of absolute honesty, absolute purity, absolute unselfishness, and absolute love. The social discrimination is justified by the statement that it is folly to have their "teams" attempt mass conversions, but that conversion of the "key people" in a community will have the same result. And the four words are the principles that will give us a world born anew.

So, scientifically speaking, this is a religion, but there are religions and religions. The purpose behind the Buchmanites, a general raising of ethical values, is worthy enough. It is to be judged on its methods and its results. NARCISSUS.